Giant sock making its way through New York

Knitting of the giant creation started in the United Kingdom last year.

Jessica Gaspar

Designer Susan Zanni will do anything to get people together; she loves community events and gatherings. Even socks can be a good start.

When she heard the Big Sock project is coming to Rochester, she jumped at the chance to have it appear in her shop.

“In this time of world stress, anything I can do to unite people across the world I will do,” she said.

The Big Sock project was started in October 2006 by United Kingdom resident Joanna Ratcliffe. She wanted to hold a charity knitting event for the U.K.’s National Knitting Week, according to the Big Sock Web site, www.bigsock.org. Ratcliffe decided to break the record for the world’s largest sock.

So she got it started and sent it around the world; knitters add on to it. . A few months ago, the sock was in Georgia. Next, it will travel to Buffalo and then to Canada.

The current record was set by the Sheep Farmers’ Association of Austria, who made a sock about 16 feet long. The sock now being knit is less than halfway done, but will reach 16 feet by the time the knitters get to the sock’s heel, the Web site said. Once the sock reaches the heel, it will go back to England, where Ratcliffe will turn the heel.

The sock is a medley of colors ranging from blue, green, red to yellow. It completely covered the table Zanni’s shop, the Yarne Source. There are 10 needles sticking from the sock, which allow up to 10 people to work on it at any given time.

It will always be unique as it will likely not have a mate, Zanni said.

About six people were working on the sock in Zanni’s shop as of 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25. Zanni had the sock for about a week and held three knitting sessions on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. She estimated about 20 people have turned out to help.

Evelyn Hatch of Rochester was one of those women. She heard about the project on the news and called Zanni right away to find out what she could do to help.
“We wanted to be part of history here,” Hatch said.

Many of the women working on the sock had not met before, yet they laughed and joked as they worked. Some needed help, so others kindly offered assistance. Zanni was amazed how the women seemed to unite together while working on the project.

“They’re all focused on the general goal though they bring to it different skills,” she said. “This is the kind of thing the world needs more of.”

Jessica Gaspar can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 323, or at jgaspar@mpnewspapers.com.